Question

Jason wanted to find out how he could increase the number of popcorn kernels that pop when cooked. He hypothesized that more kernels would pop if he used more oil. To test this, he placed 100 kernels of “Pop Rite’ popcorn into a popcorn popper that contained different amounts of oil. He used the following amounts of oil: 5 ml, 10 ml, 20 ml, and 30ml. 5mL is the amount of oil suggested on the popcorn box. He conducted the test 3 times for each amount of oil. He then counted the number of kernels that had popped. Each time he heated the oil for 2 minutes and cooked the popcorn for 4 minutes.

What is the control?

Answer 1

The type of kernels he uses is the control. This is because if he changes that, he could get a wildly different outcome on each oil amount than the other.